


Bedside Manners

by germanjj



Series: Hide From The Moon [6]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Boys In Love, Coda, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-27 01:55:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21110774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/germanjj/pseuds/germanjj
Summary: set during 3.18 - "Riddled" / after Stiles is found before he goes in for the MRIDerek keeps watch.





	Bedside Manners

~ +++++++++ ~

“We have to stop meeting like this.” The joke falls flat into silence between them, Stiles' voice too weak, betraying the bravado he’s been trying to go for. He sits up in his hospital bed, back against the headboard so he can see everything in his room, from the bathroom door across his bed to the two chairs and table to his left.

The early morning bustling is just outside the door on his right, soothing and familiar and suffocating all at once from too many nights spend in this place as a child, and the sun is creeping up on the horizon. 

Enough so that Stiles can make out the form of another person to his right, sitting with their back against the wall and their arms around their knees. Derek looks like he had just about shitty a night as Stiles had. 

“You’re awake.” Derek states and Stiles finds it funny how they’re just skipping over the fact that he hadn’t seen or heard from Derek in months and now he shows up in his hospital room at 5 in the morning. 

“I am awake.” 

“You should probably take a shower.”

Stiles wants to be offended for a moment but then his brain recognizes the smell on his skin, his hair. “I’ve been in the coyote den,” he explains, more to himself than to Derek. 

Derek doesn’t look surprised. “That’s why Scott couldn’t find you.”

‘And you too? Have you’ve been looking for me too’? Stiles wants to ask but doesn’t find the energy to. He doesn’t know what he wants to do with the answer either.

“Do you think I’m the Nogitsune?” Stiles asks instead the one question that really matters, that’s been dancing around in his head ever since he first learned the word. He desperately waits for Derek to ask ‘What is a Nogitsune?’ but Derek doesn’t answer for a long time.

“Do you?” is what he finally says.

“I don’t know,” Stiles says and doesn’t know if that’s the truth. 

“But if it turns out that I am,” he continues,” I need you to promise me something.” He grips the bedsheet with both hands, taking a deep breath. He’s well aware of what he’s doing, how he’s asking a horrible favor of Derek that he wouldn’t be able to ask of Scott, who would fail at the task, trying to save him until it was too late, until whatever it was that was inside him would be too strong to be defeated. 

“I promise,” comes the immediate reply and it stings for a moment, that Derek doesn't even need to hear the rest and is already so willing to agree. 

But then Stiles turns his head and their eyes meet and whatever Derek can’t say with words is right there on his face.

Stiles laughs just to cover up a sob trying to break out of him. 

He thinks about Derek spending so many nights next to his bed, inside his bed; a Derek only he knows, who he sometimes wants to keep all for himself and other times wants his friends to know as well. A Derek who had kissed him, him, who he had kissed back, so many months ago, and still Stiles doesn’t know where he stands with him. But he knows that something is there, something he could maybe even touch if he would just reach out but now it might be too late anyway. 

There’s nothing Stiles can say to make it better, to make either of them feel better, Derek would see right through his lies. 

“I’m sorry,” he says instead, not even sure what he’s apologizing for. The favor he asked for, his feelings for Derek, any of it. All of it. 

“Don’t be,” comes the soft reply.

Stiles jumps when suddenly the door opens and a nurse enters the room, kind smile on her face, and Stiles tries to remember her name, Margery or Mary or Magda. She switches on the ceiling light, walking across the room to open one of the windows, and Stiles is still busy to shield his eyes from the sudden bright light in his face. 

“Good morning,” she chirps, and Stiles tries to focus on her face, acting as normal as possible. “Good morning,” he replies, his eyes searching through the room while directing a weak smile at her. 

Derek’s nowhere to be seen.


End file.
